Hermione congratulated him, Kelly hugged him but Harry just laughed, "You! Sirius Black the Chief of Police? Now, that's warped."
His godfather faked being offended. "Hey! Who better to understand the mentality? I was really worried about how you would take this."
"I think it's great. I know you'll do a good job, but I just can't picture you as the upstanding law abiding type," Harry said between fits of laughter.
"Remember Harry, I am marrying him. I'll be able to keep him in line," Kelly said trying to sound serious hugging her fiancé.
The rest of the evening passed quickly with the Granger's seemingly becoming more comfortable with the thought of Hermione staying at the castle. Harry assured them he would have a telephone installed so Hermione could call and talk instead of just sending owls all the time.
The next morning Harry had gotten up early to get some practice on his broom. This had become a daily ritual for him with the European cup coming up so soon. Hermione came down and saw her mother watching out the window and could see the woman occasionally gasp when she thought Harry would crash. Of course Harry never did. "He's an amazing flyer isn't he?" Hermione asked
Without taking her eyes off of the young man flying around the yard, she said, "You really fly around on brooms like that?"
"Well I don't. It wasn't my thing. Harry has taken me up a couple times of course but I don't care for it much." Hermione laughed. "Harry would sleep up there if he could."
Harry finished flying and got cleaned up while his guests started breakfast. After eating, Harry led them down and introduced them to the Wilkins family. Letting the Grangers meet another Muggle family that lived close also helped them feel comfortable with Hermione staying at the castle. The Grangers left that afternoon to drive home after a bit of crying from both Hermione and her mother.
Harry let Hermione sit in silence for a while after they left so she could get accustomed to the reality of living here. Making Hermione feel comfortable and Quidditch were all that Harry could think about right now. He was in the kitchen when he suddenly heard her laughing loudly. Running into the living room, Harry just stared at her. "I can't believe we're roommates," was all his friend would say.
Harry spent the next few days following Hermione around shopping for things to
make the castle look better in her opinion.
She was correct of course but Harry wouldn't have done anything without
her forcing him to. Hermione seemed to
love shopping and many times Harry had to pull her out of stores when he
realized she was just looking and not intending to buy anything. Harry also
tried to force her to shop in Muggle stores whenever possible so they didn't
have to deal with the people pointing at them.
Harry's other best friend Ron came over early on the first day off the Quidditch playoffs. Hermione quickly showed him all the changes that had been made in the castle because Harry was too nervous thinking about the match. After the new tour, Ron joked, "Man you live in a girly castle now." Harry half-heartedly gave a smile; he was just trying to stay calm about the match. Once Sirius and Kelly arrived the group went to the stadium.
Since France had the best record, they were playing in the second match against Wales. This would be the second time that Harry played against the man that Cho had been seeing behind his back. Harry's friends stayed in the team box to watch the first match instead of heading to their seats. Sirius knew from last year's game that Harry wouldn't be much for conversation as long as the match was going on. Harry heard Hermione and Kelly say they were going to walk around but Ron and Sirius stayed behind.
The first thing Harry noticed was that Bulgaria was playing great. Harry tried to focus on Krum and see if he could pick up on anything the seeker did that would get Harry an advantage tomorrow, if France beat Wales later today.
The first match lasted longer than Harry expected and he was surprised to see Krum not get the snitch the first time the seeker had the chance. However, the next time the snitch showed itself, Krum was right on it and won the match for Bulgaria. Harry kept his omnioculars fixed on Krum and saw the coach yelling at him after the match but Krum just kept walking emotionless. Kristi's voice brought Harry's focus back. "If he plays like that tomorrow, you've got him." The beautiful chaser messed Harry's hair up and said, "C'mon it's our turn now." Harry quickly said goodbye to his friends and went to the locker room.
When the Wales team was being announced, Harry heard loud applause until their seeker Weisman came out. There were still many people clapping, but many more were booing. Apparently fans still hadn't forgiven the seeker for sneaking around with Harry's fiancé earlier this season. The roar when France was announced was much greater than for Wales and it even turned up a bit when Harry came out. Harry was hovering high up in the center of the stadium and noticed Weisman start to approach. Harry had no intention of talking to him and tried to give his best 'I'm going to kill you' look and darted off nearly colliding with the other seeker's head. This actually helped Harry get his focus back on how mad he had been the last time these two teams played.
The whistle blew and Harry took off, trying to play as aggressively as he did in the last meeting and almost collided with one of the chasers from Wales on their first run. Just this seemed to throw the Wales team off their game a little, obviously remembering how things turned out in their last meeting. Harry could tell that Weisman wasn't following very much, obviously not wanting to get ploughed this time. The match only lasted about twenty minutes before Harry got the snitch without much competition from the other seeker. This had been the shortest professional match Harry had ever played. After being congratulated by the rest of the team, Harry looked over to see the coach from the Wales team screaming at Weisman who just looked terrible. Harry didn't care; Weisman was partly to blame for Harry and Cho breaking up.
The team showered and did their interviews, but before leaving, Kristi had come over and talked to Harry privately for a while and handed him a note. Harry quickly read the note and it put him in a very good mood, so good that he could barely contain his excitement.
Ron was still talking about the match when they got back to Harry's house. "That was too easy. I could have been a better seeker than Weisman." Harry flinched every time Weisman's name was mentioned but didn't say anything. Since the match was over so quick, Ron was able to stay a while before he needed to go apartment hunting.
"Are you going to be living in the apartment by yourself?" Sirius asked raising his eyebrows.
Ron turned a bit pink and said, "Well yeah... At least at first. I want two bedrooms so friends can stay as well."
"You don't need two bedrooms for the friend you really want to stay there, do you?" Harry asked knowing that Ron wanted Parvati to stay there as well.
Ron blushed even more but Hermione asked, "What does your mom think about you moving out?"
"She was upset at first. You know, the last boy leaving home and all but she's getting better. Ginny's more upset about it. Not that I'm leaving mind you, just that she'll be the only one left," Ron said. "With things being you know –safer- this year mum's ok with me moving."
"It is a drastic change in the environment." Kelly added smiling at Harry. Harry frowned a little remembering what it cost to make things better. The defeat of Voldemort and the other evil wizard's essences had cost Professor Dumbledore his life. Hermione must have sensed this was bothering him because she rubbed his back lightly.
"Ron. What did you say you were going to do now that school's out?" Harry asked suddenly remembering the note Kristi gave him.
"Open the new store for the twins. You know that," Ron answered wondering why Harry would ask.
"But, after a while, that won't take all your time. Isn't there something else you'd rather do?" Harry asked and had a strange look on his face.
"Sure, I'd rather play seeker for France and hang around beautiful women all day but that's not going to happen," Ron replied sarcastically.
"Well, how about playing keeper for Puddlemere? Would that be good enough?" Harry said calmly.
"What are you getting at? That's as likely as me playing seeker for France," Ron responded.
The other friends in the room were just looking back and forth at the exchange between the two of them, not understanding why Harry was asking these questions either. "I'm not leaving the French team so there's no way you can have my job, but", Harry paused to keep everyone's attention, "Puddlemere's keeper is leaving and I know when the tryouts are," Harry finished looking at Ron closely.
Ron got really excited and started saying, "When? How? There's no way." Harry smiled and handed him the note Kristi had given him and watched his friend's expression. Ron read the note and the other people saw his eyes get really wide, he handed the note to Hermione and exclaimed, "And I can just go? Just like that?"
"Yep, Kristi already put your name on the list. Listen, you've been a great keeper for three years and captain of the team. You have a real shot at starting or at least making reserve. You would still have time to run the store, especially if you convince Cho to come help you," said Harry happy to see how excited his friend was.
"Ron. This is your dream. You've got to try," Hermione added feeling happy for her friend as well.
The trio went back and forth for a while with Ron making up excuses then Harry and Hermione giving him reasons to at least try. In the end, Ron said he'd go to the tryouts and see what happened. Ron could barely stand still when he finally left.
"That was really nice of Kristi," Hermione said sounding surprised.
"Didn't I tell you she's an ok person?" Harry responded. It irritated him that everyone though Kristi was so cold and not nice. She had been nothing but nice to Harry.
"Do you think Krum will have an off day again tomorrow?" Sirius asked.
"I doubt it," Harry said quickly looking upset. "He's never like that. He only misses the snitch when he's forced to miss it."
"But if he does, you'll be the champions," Kelly added trying to cheer Harry up.
"Try to be more careful this time you play him. You were in the hospital for three days last time you played them," said Hermione, always being the responsible one.
"I can't be careful, it's Krum!" Harry quickly exclaimed. "If I don't play my best, he'll walk on me."
"I almost forgot," Sirius said hitting himself in the head with his palm. "I've got the contract. They wanted it done before the playoffs but I kept holding out saying you wanted to wait until you won the cup. They must think you have a good chance because they increased their offer a bit if I could get it done before the finals. What do you think?"
Harry took the contract and flipped to the amount; he trusted that Sirius would have looked at everything else. The new contract amount was a 50% raise over last year. Harry just shook his head and quickly signed the form, handing it back to Sirius. "They're totally mental, that's all there is too it. Nobody is worth making this much money."
"You make a lot of money for the team Harry," Kelly firmly stated. "You bring people to see Quidditch that don't normally like the sport. Other teams talked about offering you more."
"I told her you wouldn't leave France," Sirius reminded her.
"That's right. They're nice to me, I won't leave," Harry said then added, "Just take your cut whenever they transfer the money. Buy something nice for your future wife." Harry joked looking at Kelly.
The next day found Harry waiting in the locker room before the match. The tension was evident again since they had come so close last year only to lose in the final match to Bulgaria and now they had another chance. Harry could see the look of total concentration on Kristi's face and it actually made him smile. Seeing how she acted in private and then how focused she could be about Quidditch made him admire her even more.
The roar was deafening when both teams were announced and as usual Harry and Viktor met above the stadium to wish each other luck before parting and preparing to do battle. The match started in a blur of streaking brooms and quickly fell into a rhythm of breaking up runs and marking the other seeker. The first time the snitch was spotted, Harry had to foul Viktor to keep him from getting to it but the next time the snitch came out, it was Viktor who had to foul Harry.
The two seekers produced moves that made the crowd gasp many times, neither one backing off at all. The match was into its second hour and the score was close enough that everyone realized it was going to come down to who got the snitch. Viktor and Harry each had a few fouls adding to the tension.
When the elusive golden ball finally appeared again, and both Harry and Viktor darted after it from about the same distance so they were neck-and-neck following each swerve and dive shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. Both seekers sensed there would be no fouls this time, as they were both focused only on grabbing the golden winged ball.
Krum and Harry both had their arms extended and hands ready to grab the snitch when Harry heard a woosh then felt the screaming pain in his hand. A bludger had just connected with the back of his right hand and knocked it away and in that instant, Viktor had closed his hand around the snitch. Bulgaria had just beaten France for the second year in a row to take the cup.
Harry was slowly flying down when Viktor came up. "Alright Harry?"
Harry stopped. "Congratulations Viktor. Am I ever going to beat you in the finals?"
Viktor came closer. "Just paying you back for the regular season. Maybe next year will be yours."
Harry called back, "Not if you're still around. Congratulations again."
Harry flew to the ground and was again surprised when his teammates weren't furious with him. In fact, the beaters came over first. "Sorry about that Harry, we should have gotten to the bludger."
Harry replied, "I should have gotten the snitch the other time. Man I really wanted to win." Harry was
angrily talking to himself while the medi-wizard was
tending to his injured hand.
Kristi came up behind Harry and said, "Don't let it get to you. We had an undefeated regular season and made the finals. We'll get the cup next time."
Harry tried to smile at her but was really angry with himself. After the team showered and changed, Harry found his favorite reporter through the mass of screaming people.
"font denotes speaking in FrenchCongratulations on another great season."
"Thanks, but it wasn't as great as I wanted," Harry replied sounding upset.
"Fans will say differently. France's first undefeated season in a long time, an easy first round victory and just about taking the cup. Most would call that a great season."
"We really wanted to win the cup for the fans this year. Viktor is just too dominating. I hope to figure out some new strategy before we play them again."
"I understand you have signed for another year with France. We heard there were offers from other teams for considerably more money. Why stay here?"
"Because I want to win the cup! This is a great team and we've come so close the past couple years. I just know that we'll get the cup soon."
"Now that you're out of school and defeated the Dark Lord will we be seeing more of you about town?"
"I had a lot of help to beat Voldemort, and it came at a high price. I don't know how much I'll be out. I have a real job as well as playing Quidditch so I'm not sure how much free time I'll have."
"A real job? What will you be doing and; if you don't mind me asking; why would you want a real job?"
Harry laughed, "I'm doing some work for the English Ministry of Magic, and have just accepted the position of Envoy of Non-Human Relationships for them as well. As for why..My friends would say because I'm mental but really, I just like the people and want to work with them. I would get bored if I don't keep busy."
"Envoy. Does this mean we have to start calling you sir or anything." The reporter joked.
"Ms. Mishmas, you and France's fans can call me anything you want. See you next season."
His friends had come over and were greeting Harry. They were congratulating him even though he felt bad about losing when Kristi came over. "Envoy. A word please," she said with a sly smile on her face.
"Don't start with me Kristi. Please don't ever call me that again. I'll take schoolboy over that any day."
"Why can't you just relax and have some fun? I'm sure the Ministry can get along without you for a couple years," said Kristi moving very close to Harry.
Hermione came up next to Harry and spoke up, "Harry wants to help. He has fun at work."
Kristi gave her a strange look before turning back to Harry. "Why don't you come out and celebrate tonight with us. Your friends can find their way home."
Again Hermione answered quickly, "We're having some friends to our house tonight."
Kristi looked confused. "Our house?"
"I'm Harry's roommate and some people are coming over," Hermione said proudly.
"Only roommate or is there more?" Kristi asked giving Hermione an appraising look.
Hermione flustered and said, "Oh no, only roommate."
Harry gave Hermione a strange look and heard Kristi ask him, "In that case is there room enough for one more? I wouldn't mind seeing how my starting seeker lives."
Harry felt trapped but said, "Um. Sure. It won't be too exciting but it would be great to have you."
"Should I go change or will this be ok?" Kristi asked.
Harry thought she looked fantastic in anything. "You're great like that," he said a little more enthusiastically than he intended which caused him to blush. He saw that Kristi smiled a bit at his predicament.
Hermione felt angry with herself for having set that up for Kristi perfectly. Hermione was being honest, she was only a roommate but now she had stated that fact loudly right in front of Harry, his friends and a beautiful woman who was obviously interested in Harry.
Ron kept thanking Kristi for the opening to tryout for keeper. Finally Harry could tell Kristi was becoming uncomfortable and he had to tell his friend to drop it. Ron then announced he was going to get Parvati and meet at Harry's soon.
"How will I get there my first time? You haven't told me where it is," Kristi asked, again moving close to Harry.
"Take my hand, I can pull you." Harry said this like it was the obvious thing, but Kristi looked confused. Harry smiled at her and said, "Trust me." Harry extended his hand and when Kristi took it, they both disapparated away.
Harry and Kristi instantly appeared in the large living room of the castle, and were quickly joined by his other friends. Kristi was staring at Harry and asked, "How did you do that to me so easily?" She sounded totally amazed that he had been able to apparate with her as if it was nothing.
Sirius laughed and said, "Get used to it Kristi. He's full of surprised."
Harry smiled, shrugged his shoulders at the chaser and started to show her around when he swore he heard Sirius say, "This could be a very interesting evening."
Hermione seemed really annoyed and said, "I'm going to tell Ginny we're back." She quickly went to the fireplace to use the floo to contact Ginny.
Harry felt nervous showing Kristi the place. She seemed genuinely interested in everything at the castle and asked many questions about the pictures and objects. He didn't know who many of the people in the pictures were because R.J. never had a chance to bring him there and tell him. After the couple had finished with the tour and were coming back in from the back yard, Harry said, "It's not as modern as your place and your view is way better."
Kristi looked at Harry like she still couldn't figure him out and chucked, "I'd
swap," was all she said before the couple went back inside. Ron, Parvati and Remus Lupin had showed up so
Kristi was able to talk to Sirius, Remus and Kelly as well as Harry. Harry kept noticing how easily Kristi talked
to people and how different her private actions were to her public persona.
Hermione was greeting Ginny who had just arrived and when Harry got close, he overheard Ginny ask Hermione, "What's she doing here?" Before Hermione could answer, Ginny noticed Harry and asked, "Did you invite her?" Harry could tell Ginny didn't seem pleased with Kristi being here either.
Harry just looked at the redhead but Hermione spoke up kind of sheepishly, "She kind of invited herself, and it's kind of my fault. Come on, I'll tell you." Hermione started to pull Ginny away.
"What, you don't like her?" Harry asked looking confused.
Both girls just shook their heads in amazement at how clueless Harry could be and he heard Ginny say, "Boys."
The evening went really well considering both Hermione and Ginny wouldn't say anything to Kristi and Parvati got mad at Ron whenever he did say anything to the chaser. Now, Parvati was upset that Kristi had thought of Ron for the keeper position even though she was really excited for Ron. No one else seemed to mind Kristi being there and actually seemed to enjoy her stories and conversation. Dobby and Winky made a great meal and the group had gone through a few bottles of wine during the evening. When it started to get late, Remus, Sirius, and Kelly announced they were leaving, Kristi stood up also. "I'll leave you and your friends alone for the evening as well. It's still early enough for me to catch the celebration."
Harry stood up and walked across the room with Kristi. "I'm really glad you came, it was nice having you here."
She smiled genuinely and said, "Thanks for letting me come, considering I invited myself."
Harry laughed, "Well, I've been told I'm kind of slow on things like this. I'll try to be better but don't hesitate to invite yourself again. I won't irritate me at all."
Kristi looked pleased and replied, "You can count on it. Now promise you'll come to Paris again soon. You can't use being trapped at school as an excuse anymore. And, you owe me a tour of London if I recall."
Harry smiled, "Definitely. See you later." Harry was surprised when Kristi leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before disapparating away. He kind of stood there in shock for a second with his hand on his cheek before turning back to his friends and seeing them stare at him with wide eyes. "What?" was all he said before Ron started rolling with laughter. The girls looked like they could kill Harry but he couldn't stop smiling.
Harry wanted to change the subject and quickly asked Ron about apartment hunting. Ron and Parvati went on and on about places they had seen. Then Harry brought up the keeper tryouts and Ron went on and on about how he couldn't believe Kristi had gotten him a tryout. Harry noticed both Hermione and Ginny weren't very talkative to him and nothing was said about Kristi the rest of the night.
"Parvati. Are your parents ok with you and Ron staying here tonight?" Harry asked not knowing how lenient her parents were.
Parvati and Ron both blushed before Parvati said, "They were ok as long as they knew an adult would be here." The girl started giggling a little. This reminded Harry of how she was back in their fourth year.
Hermione, sounding like a parent already exclaimed, "But there aren't any adults here."
Ron calmly added, "But her parents don't know that, do they."
"Does mum know Parvati is staying over as well?" Ginny asked trying to give Ron an evil look but not quite managing it.
"I may have forgotten to tell her that and I'm sure you won't mention it will you?" Ron stated firmly trying to return Ginny's evil stare.
"Depends. We'll see what I want in return," Ginny said finally laughing.
"As long as you all promise to back me up when I say that I didn't know what was going on, I won't say anything," Harry added trying to joke.
Ginny quickly spoke up, "Everyone will believe you were clueless Harry. That won't be a problem," causing everyone to laugh except Harry.
The group of friends stayed up late talking and listening to music. When they all went to bed, Harry had embarrassed Ron by asking if he knew how to do a good silencing charm so that he and Parvati didn't keep everyone up. Ginny quickly said that she knew how to do a really good one which drew stunned looks from the rest of the group until she explained that living with the twins had forced her to learn so that she could sleep.
After breakfast the next morning, all of the friends left, leaving Harry and Hermione alone in their home. Hermione was back to treating Harry normally and didn't say anything about Kristi as she spent most of the time getting more comfortable with the castle and arranging her books in the library.